Newport News shipyard receives first components of new launch system

A conceptual rendering of CVN 78, the first of a new generation carrier design. (Daily Press )

May 25, 2011|By Peter Frost, pfrost@dailypress.com | 247-4744

NEWPORT NEWS — The first components of a new aircraft-launching system for the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier have been delivered to Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.'s Newport News shipyard for installation, the Navy and the equipment maker announced.

San Diego-based General Atomics sent the first completed computer servers, cooling systems and power equipment of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, earlier this month, according to the Navy.

The on-time delivery of the first set of components represents a critical milestone for General Atomics, which has labored through a series of high-profile problems in the early development of the system, leading to costly delays and raising widespread suspicions that the equipment would be too expensive to bring to maturity in time to be installed on the Ford.

It's also important for the Newport News shipyard, which must receive the materials on time to ensure no disruptions in the construction schedule of the carrier it is supposed to complete in 2015.

"Being able to deliver the very first EMALS components is exciting. We are committed to this technology and committed to delivering a reliable product to the newest class of aircraft carriers," said Capt. James Donnelly, the Navy's program manager for the equipment.

Under development for more than a decade, EMALS uses motors that send a series of electric pulses through a line of electromagnets that thrust a jet down the track, much like the technology used in roller coasters.

It will replace the steam-powered catapults that have been used to propel fighters off carrier decks for the last five decades.

Paired with new aircraft arresting equipment, the launch system will cost the Navy $683.6 million.

The components delivered this month are the first of thousands of pieces of hardware that constitute EMALS.

The new technology is intended to reduce maintenance and personnel costs on the ships and reduce stress on the aircraft they launch. The Navy has touted EMALS as more efficient, more powerful and easier to control than steam-powered catapults.

It's the most significant change to the Navy's new class of carriers, and perhaps, the most risky.

A March report by the Government Accountability Office listed EMALS as one of three new technologies that "present the greatest risk to the ship's cost and schedule."

Development of the system "has been one of the primary drivers" of the carrier's cost increases, the report said.

The initial development problems resulted in scheduling delays. As a result, testing of the system will not be complete until months after its installation on the Ford. The GAO warned that as the Navy continues to test EMALS, additional design changes may be necessary.

Some concerns about EMALS were eased in December, when a land-based test successfully catapulted four F/A-18E Super Hornets off a runway.